Consumer computer system performance tends to degrade over time. While performance degradation in some cases is attributable to hardware malfunctions, in most cases computer system performance degradation is a software issue. As a computer system user updates existing application programs, or replaces existing application programs with newer versions, the updates and/or newer versions usually represent increased functionality but with higher code complexity. Thus, the newer versions with increased functionally may appear to operate slower than the earlier versions. Notwithstanding the increases in complexity, over time consumer computer systems tend to increase in the overall number of application programs on the machine. Thus, even if complexity is held constant, the large number of application programs executed by the computer system, and in particular the number of application programs automatically started with each boot of the computer system, make the computer system appear to experience performance degradation.
In some cases, a computer system user may unintentionally or inadvertently install additional programs, such as the class of parasitic programs known as “spyware.” Such spyware programs may be loaded on the computer system without the user's knowledge, or programs that the user desires to be loaded may be accompanied by spyware-type programs. An increasing number of unwanted and/or unapproved programs may also manifest in the form of performance degradation of the computer system.